Top brass joins the band
Page 12
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11 New Road Haulage Association director-general Bryan Colley, who like his predecessor Freddie Plaskett is an exArmy head of transport, is gunning to double membership, boost the RHA's public image and set up a dating service for UK and Continental hauliers, as his six-year tenure takes the association through the trauma of 1992.
Although he and Plaskett did the same job in the Army — one which Colley says taught him to run a 12,000-vehicle fleet cost-effectively, win friends and influence people — the similarity stops there.
Colley is quiet-spoken, gently persuasive and looks like a bank manager. Plaskett, by comparison, was outspoken with a no-nonsense approach — and he was respected by owner-drivers and Whitehall mandarins alike. Colley will certainly not be a Freddie Mark II, but stresses: "I don't believe in taking up a broom and sweeping — it would be daft to come in with too many new ideas.
"It was an indication of the esteem in which Freddie Plaskett was held at the DTp when Patrick Jackson put it all into perspective (a senior DTp civil servant who praised Plaskett's record at the recent RHA Conference in Estoril).
"After five years in Whitehall (as Army transport chief, Colley was based at the Ministry of Defence ) I've found there is a place for subtle persuasion," but adds that although he is conscious of being a servant of the RHA board, such a diverse organisation needs clear leadership, and "one has to provide that leadership.
"I am taking over a very sound operation which is financially viable," says Colley. "We
have many different views, and one has to obtain a consensus by debate and communication. I've already met a good crosssection of the membership, but I will go out to local districts, talk to district managers and meet as many people as I can."
At his maiden annual conference in Portugal he says he was made aware of the "wide range of interests within the organisation, all with different priorities. It was very useful just to sit and listen. I finished with many pages of notes."
Colley, 54, spent 36 years in the Army, reaching the rank of major-general. He joined the Royal Army Service Corps straight from school but refutes any suggestion that spending his working life in uniform has left him out of touch with the "real world".
Being in command of 12,000 vehicles, 27,000 staff, 80 locomotives and 57 vessels made him acutely aware of the transport industry, he says. "In the last few years there was much more emphasis on value for money: I had to run a priority freight service with 19 routes daily." His duties put him in regular contact with civil servants and civilian transport firms (many of his vehicles were provided on contract by Dawson Rentals).
Too young to stop
When he retired from the Army he felt he was too young to stop work. "It was a question of finding something to do," he says. "The RHA is not terribly different from the Army. One still has to fight one's case on costeffectiveness." Colley ran the army's transport operation in line with drivers' hours and hazardous goods legislation, despite the MoD's exemption, and this has kept him up to date with the rules and regulations faced by hauliers.
As well as improving communication between the top and the grassroots, increasing membership and improving the public image of the road haulage industry, Colley's plans for the RHA include pressing for better roads. "It's a pity that more members don't take a more active role at local level," he says. "Communication is a two-way thing. We must persuade the silent majority that if they hay( a view they should communicate it" Membership of the RHA, h( says, could be doubled "if we can encourage the view that a become a member of the RBA should be a sign of good service. The customer should know he is getting a quality deal. The bigger the membership, the bigger clout we could have — if we could speak for 22,000 rather than 11,000, the more services we could provide and the more power we would have."
Better relations
Better relations with the publi( — spurred by the "killer juggernauts" section of the media — must be improved, he says but "nobody is ever going to love the big lorry". Returning from his last tour of duty in Germany in 1986, the first thing that struck him was the aggression shown by all drivers. "I think it would be nice we could persuade all road users to have better manners. It's a question of trying to edu cate people," he says.
All being well, Colley will be at the helm of the RHA until 1994: two years into the single European Market (SEM). Although he says most members of the RHA are aware of the changes, he warns that those who fail to prepare for the SEM now will not be read] in 1992. He wants to set up a data bank or "dating service" at the association with trade organisations on the Continent to help medium-size firms here to forge business links with similar companies over there.
0 by Murdo Morrison